A manual being using to train election judges for next week's elections contains inaccurate information, reflecting a new voter identification law that has not yet taken effect, Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart said Monday.

Stanart said his office caught the error after the first training class last Monday and since has provided correct information to election workers.

State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said two confused election judges contacted his office last week, concerned the manual was implementing Texas' new voter identification law a year early.

The controversial law is praised by mostly Republican supporters, who say it will reduce voter fraud, and slammed by mostly Democratic critics, who say such fraud is a false menace and complain the law could disenfranchise the poor, young and elderly.

Beginning Jan. 1, the law will require residents to show one of several forms of photo identification in addition to their voter registration cards before casting their ballots.

For the Nov. 8 elections, a voter registration card alone still will be sufficient.

'A political point'

Ellis said he is concerned the manual - which does not state that a voter registration card alone is sufficient - could lead confused election judges to wrongly turn away "thousands" of voters who show up next Tuesday.

"By failing to include this information in your manual," he wrote to Stanart, "an election judge utilizing the manual as the official reference document could erroneously turn away otherwise eligible voters that may have arrived with nothing more than their voter registration card."

Stanart, a Republican, accused Ellis of trying to "make a political point" and said he is not concerned about confusion among election workers.

The county clerk said his staff will include fliers clarifying the issue in election judges' papers for Election Day.

"There was an error, we caught it, we fixed it and we've been communicating it. Our election judges are smart," Stanart said.

"You've got a high percentage of smart people who've done this year after year."

George Hammerlein of the county clerk's office said clerks have been distributing fliers to voters at early-voting polling places explaining the new voter ID law requirements scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The law is being challenged by several groups.